The most famous contracts professor of all time isn't Langdell, Williston, Corbin, or Llewellyn. It's Harvard's Charles W. Kingsfield, Jr., whose larger-than-life persona still broods over the academy more than 30 years after he appears in The Paper Chase.

In The Shadow of Professor Kingsfield: Contemporary Dilemmas Facing Women Law Professors, forthcoming in the William & Mary Journal of Women and the Law, Martha Chamallas (Ohio State) looks at "the predicament of women law professors in an era when the representation of women on law faculties has reached a 'critical mass.'" She "explores three mechanisms for reproducing gender inequality: (1) self-fulfilling stereotypes, (2) gender-specific comparison groups, and (3) the accumulation of small disadvantages." And she "uses stories from her own and colleagues' experiences to illustrate contemporary forms of bias."